Abortion is a dominant issue in the 2024 presidential contest, according to polls. In fact, in the polling that I’ve been looking at, abortion is usually tied with immigration as the second or third most important issue for voters, behind the economy but ahead of just about everything else.

It is clearly an issue that resonates with women. Moreover, the widening gender gap between Trump’s and Kamala’s supporters, which is as great as 13 percent according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll, seems to center on precisely this feminist priority. In national polls Harris is leading Trump by 19 points on the abortion question. Women, meaning college-educated and usually suburban women, are deeply concerned that Trump and his party really don’t care about women’s “reproductive issues” and are allegedly trying to reduce women to second-class citizens in a male-dominated society.

This seems to be what the war of the sexes is over, fighting the real or imaginary “patriarchy.” In this struggle, a federally guaranteed, unlimited right to abortion has become the most critical goal for progressive women asserting their autonomy.  But there are complications here. In recent weeks, the New York Post has been interviewing swing state viewers who plan to vote for Harris. Particularly noteworthy are the responses of female college students, who seem strangely unable to articulate their candidate’s position on anything. Typical of their reasons for supporting Harris are the following: “I just think her beliefs align with my beliefs.” Her position on “women’s reproductive rights” shows “that she’s definitely for more [rights] like women’s health.”

Strangely enough, none of the respondents could explain how Kamala’s position on abortion (also known as “women’s reproductive rights” or “women’s health issues”) differs from that of her opponent. One female Harris enthusiast, who couldn’t be sure where her candidate stood on specific issues, wants “a person with some sort of morality in office.” That respondent freely admitted that “I’m not really worried about certain issues.” In televised interviews with women supporting Harris that the Post conducted in Phoenix on Aug. 13,  they all seemed to repeat the same ecstatic message, “She’s brought joy back into my life.”

Although one might argue that these responses just represent isolated opinions, they are the same ones that I’ve been hearing repeatedly from female Harris voters. Being for their candidate means fighting for “women” against the “patriarchy.” Supporting this cackling, incoherent candidate does not require one to understand the word salads in which she speaks, her radically leftist past, or her flip-flopping on vital issues. Endorsing Kamala, moreover, means sending vibes that one is a good person who is fighting for the sisterhood.

How then can the Trump campaign and Republicans running downballot counteract these emotional outbursts? I’m not sure they can or at least not effectively, no matter how moderate or centrist Republicans sound on abortion. The crusade is only marginally about the issue being showcased. It is mostly about a sense that women have been treated unjustly. This complaint carries weight among many women voters, who take seriously those grossly privileged, wealthy black feminists Michelle and Oprah bewailing their continuing battles with sexism and racism.

Having illegal criminals come into one’s neighborhood or having to pay far more for food, rent, and fuel than was the case four years ago matters far less for these voters than expressing a sense of grievance. This reaction is particularly strong among black women, who may be the most reliable shock troop of the woke left. The fact that many of these women have been abused in what is often a dysfunctional black society is true enough, but their anger is entirely misplaced. It is not Republican politicians who have abused them; it is their own society and its corrupt black Democratic politicians whom they should be angry at. But good luck in trying to get that across!

Although I’ve been dealing with them all my life, I have no idea why Jewish women (outside of Orthodox circles) feel abused by men and therefore are disproportionately aligned with the feminist left—and, of course, with Kamala. We are speaking here about privileged creatures who are no more abused by men than Michelle and Oprah. But again, it may be futile to try to disabuse these implausible self-described victims.

Clearly, the position taken by Trump and the Republican National Committee on abortion rights (which, contrary to what Kamala keeps telling us, most definitely does not call for a national ban) is not what’s driving women toward the left. They are reacting quite anachronistically against a male domination that no longer exists. Christina Hoff Sommers’ book The War Against Boys, which is now 24 years old, furnishes ample evidence of government and educational discrimination against young men. And with the more recent victories of the woke left, this government-sponsored degradation has grown even worse.

While feminist behavior is out of whack with reality, I see no way Republicans can change it. Rather they should ignore this accelerating hysteria while trying to recruit as many young men for their side as possible. Trying to please a perpetually aggrieved female demographic is like knocking your head against the wall.